Five Ways to Save Time and Money on Your Email Marketing

Intro

When your email marketing is on point, you get positive feedback from your subscribers in many ways, but most of all through engagement – when they open, click-through and reply. However, carelessness in your email campaigns can drain time and money. Without putting the right preventative measures and safeguards in place, you’ll be wasting resources and unable to reach your full potential.

Let’s see how you can avoid that – and spend less time and money on your email marketing campaigns.

How to save money and time on your email marketing

Like so many undertakings, it pays to be thorough and careful. Execution matters, and there’s a lot to lose with sloppy implementation. When an email marketer shoots for precision and attention to detail, the reward is increased ROI.

Why not avoid potential headaches? It’s better to get your email marketing right the first time than worry about whether you can salvage your list. Haste makes waste every time, but it doesn’t mean you can’t save time and make your life easier.

We’ll show you how to cut time and costs with your email marketing.

#1. Reuse good content

When you create your emails, you spend a lot of time with them and come to know and recognize the content. You may think your subscribers would recognize and be annoyed if you repeat content. But the truth is that they aren’t likely to notice.

This email that serves as a reminder of holiday shipping cut-off dates can be reused annually with a little tweaking.

Email expert Emily Ryan, founder of Westfield Creative and Mailchimp Pro Partner, explains:

“If you get an email from a brand you love, would you know if they sent that same email a year ago? Probably not. Reusing content is one of the best things you can do to save time and use campaigns you know worked well in the past. I always assure my clients that people won't remember if they used it even a few months ago.”

Reusing content can save you a lot of time and get you superb results. Create and maintain an archive of frequently used images, phrases, and even blocks of text. As Emily Ryan explained, you can frequently reuse the entire email. Just proofread it again, update your link tracking, and ensure that the prices, shipping, and other details are still accurate. Then, unleash it into the world.

#2. Use segmentation to maximize ROI

We live in an age where customers expect you to not only call them by name but also know what they want to buy and how they prefer it. We can learn everything from sizes to favorite flavors and store oodles of data about our customers’ preferences.

You can make the most of your time and keep expenses low by honing in on the ideal candidate interested in a specific product or service. By targeting the right person, you optimize your campaigns. This is called segmentation. The concept is quite simple: you break your email list into smaller groups so that your messaging and marketing make the most sense.

It’s simple and logical. When you send specialized emails to those most likely to respond positively, you’re likelier to get positive results. You’ll see a boost in your click-rates, which can only bring in more sales and a higher email ROI.

Nike used segmentation by birthday month in order to offer a special 25% discount.

#3. Save time and money by eliminating invalid email addresses

Email lists do not stay fresh indefinitely. Data quality declines constantly, and some email addresses don’t belong on your email list in the first place. Many customers change their email addresses from time to time for any number of reasons. When you send an email to an abandoned email address, you'll eventually get a bounce.

You can do yourself and your email campaigns a great service by eliminating non-responsive and potentially harmful email addresses from your list. You’ll save expenses and ensure that future campaigns aren’t derailed.

It’s not just invalid email addresses; there are spam traps, toxic, disposable, and other kinds of email addresses that only spell disaster for your email hygiene. You don’t want to face a dirty email list because it means that even your interested and valid subscribers can be blocked from seeing your emails.

The solution is periodic email list cleaning. Use an email validation service to check your entire list and install an email validation API to prevent harmful emails from square one.

Practicing email validation saves on your expenses because your email provider, whether Mailchimp or ConstantContact, charges you based on how many contacts you send to and how often. Why would you spend time and resources on a dead end? Get those bad contacts off of your list, enjoy a higher ROI, and avoid the troubleshooting of an email list health crisis.

#4. Require double opt-in for anyone who signs up

Everyone who receives your emails should demonstrate a little effort to subscribe. Doing so will help keep bots and spam complaints at bay. It only takes a couple extra clicks, but it’s easy.

After someone signs up using one of your forms, set up a message to display and let this person know to check their email for confirmation. They’ll receive an email with a unique link. If they really want to get on your list, they have to demonstrate these easy steps to do so. If they don’t want to make that small effort, they won’t really engage with your emails. Those half-hearted people are most likely to be a drain on your time and money. Requiring double opt-in weeds out non-serious people who only end up as time-wasters.

It only takes a moment for any of your subscribers to confirm that they really wanted to sign-up for your emails. You’ll sift out mildly interested people and even bots.

#5. Check and recheck everything before you hit send

Sometimes it’s the most elementary thing that can save you the most time. Ben Franklin famously said, “Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.” You can avoid much of the time and money losses you’ll incur simply by slowing down and being painstaking. The funny thing is that being painstaking saves you from pain.

You want to send your emails with confidence. Don’t squander any email you send. Instead, be sure you’re presenting your company in the best possible way. Sending an email with a glaring error or even something that rubs customers and partners the wrong way could make you regretful. So get a few eyes on your emails. Together and collectively, check and recheck so you make the most of your time and resources.

Conclusion

There are just three components that will ensure your email marketing is successful. If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you’re on the road to winning.

• Are your emails useful to your subscribers?

Nobody is going to subscribe if there isn’t a motivating factor.

• Are you ensuring good email hygiene?

This means keeping your list clean, sending at regular intervals, and following best practices.

• Are you eliminating waste and avoiding any time or cost leaks?

It’s the only way to be efficient. It’s a business venture; treat it like one.